Graphic: All you need to know about $20m match

The England cricket team were divided into the haves and the have-lesses yesterday when Kevin Pietersen, the captain, named his XI to play the Stanford Superstars in Antigua tonight, with each member of the winning side due to receive $1 million (about £620,000).

James Anderson was the most high-profile omission from the squad of 15, although, like Ravi Bopara, Alastair Cook and Ryan Sidebottom, he will earn $250,000 just for carrying the drinks - but only if England are victorious. If the Superstars win the Twenty20 match, England will leave the Caribbean with nothing.

Anderson was last overlooked for a Twenty20 contest in 2007, against Australia, and has played in England's past 40 one-day internationals, but he has lost his place to Graeme Swann, the Nottinghamshire off spinner, after Pietersen decided that he needed an extra slow bowler. “I'm disappointed but as soon as I saw the wicket was conducive to two spinners I knew I might miss out,” Anderson, the Lancashire fast bowler, said. “I have to accept it and move on.”

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• Graphic: All you need to know about $20m match

Pietersen said it was “one of the hardest decisions I've had to make. Unfortunately the circumstances have arisen in terms of the pitch and, the way games have gone, we have to play another spinner.” He admitted that if a match-winning catch had to be taken, there was no better fielder in the squad than Anderson.

The decision to leave out Cook and Bopara was expected, while Sidebottom has been struggling with a stiff calf. Stephen Harmison, the Durham fast bowler who came out of retirement from limited-overs internationals in August, and Luke Wright, the Sussex all-rounder who did not bat or bowl in either of England's warm-up matches, may be feeling fortunate to be selected.

Pietersen said that he would not blame a team-mate if they made a mistake that cost England the money. “We have come into this knowing what happens happens,” he said. “The sun will still come up in the morning.”